Lucid
by The-Captain-Nemo
Summary: A recurring dream strains Yang's grasp of reality.
1. Chapter 1

Years had led up to this. Countless hours of training with her team, private sparring with Blake, all those boring classes, everything. Roman Torchwick was going down, tonight. Yang was running through the twisting hallways underneath the factory in which he was holed up. Ruby had run ahead while she and Blake had dealt with Adam. Yang knew that they had a past together and had left her to make peace. Now all she was focusing on was catching up with her sister.

Yang cursed under her breath, she never should have let her go off on her own. She shook her head lightly. No Ruby was fully capable, she shouldn't be worried. Yang rounded a corner and dug her heels in sliding to a stop. Ruby was standing in the middle of the room, face to face with Roman.

"She got him!" Yang thought her heart filling with pride.

All of that pride turned to dread. Ruby's head was tilted back. She wasn't holding her own weight. Suddenly, Roman dropped her. Her body hit the concrete floor hard, the knife in her chest now in plain sight. Yang stood there, speechless, looking at the limp body of her baby sister.

Roman laughed, "Too late." He said coldly, with a laugh.

Yang saw red, her eyes closed and she could feel the air around her beginning to catch fire. Rational thought dissolved into madness and she screamed, a blood curdling howl of sheer agony. She fired her gauntlets and sailed across the room, her fist catching Roman in the right shoulder. She felt bone break. Her punch flung him across the room and into the far wall. Yang fired again and closed the distance between them and started punching. Tears and sweat mixed with fire and evaporated. She felt Roman struggle, she kept punching. She felt him stop struggling, she kept punching. She felt her fists hitting concrete. She kept punching.

"Yang!" a voice shrieked. She was pulled back into sanity. She looked and saw Blake in the doorway, her hands covering her mouth and fear in her eyes. Her eyes darted back to Roman and she gasped. Where he used to be there was a section of broken wall, blood, and burnt flesh. He was dead, she had killed him. Yang fell back into her hands, crawling away from what was left of him in horror of what she had done.

A few feet away she stopped and just stared blankly at the aftermath, her breathing erratic and shallow. Something grabbed her wrist. She jumped. And looked at back. Ruby looked up at her, there were tears in her eyes.

"Did we do it? Did we get him?"

Yang flipped around on her hands and knees crouching over her little sister. She choked back a sob, "yeah, we got him sis." Her tears fell onto Ruby's shoulder. Ruby looked at her sadly.

"Don't cry. We…." Ruby's eyes drifted as she trailed off.

"NO!" Yang cried.

"Yang, I'm scared." She could barely whisper. Ruby coughed and blood came up.

Ruby looked back to her "I love you… Yang, I love…" Her eyes lost focus and her fingers went limp around Yang's wrist.

Yang's eyes filled with tears again and she fell, burying her face in Ruby's chest. She grasped for her, grapping her cloak and balling it up in her fists. She let the tears flow freely. She couldn't be gone. She couldn't be dead. Yang pulled back throwing her head back and screaming. She raged at the world, for taking her, and she raged at herself for allowing it. Her scream broke off into hollow sobs. She looked down at Ruby taking her hands in her own. She folded her hands over her, covering the knife. She looked up at Blake who was still in the same position. The fear was gone from her eyes and replaced with pain

She slid her arms underneath Ruby and lifted her up, holding her as close as possible. Yang began to walk back, her face devoid of emotion, though her eyes betrayed her. She could feel Blake shadowing her the entire time, silent. Yang wished she would say something, she wished that Blake knew how much she needed her. The walk out of the warehouse didn't feel real. This couldn't be real. This was every single one of her nightmares come true at once. Ruby dead, Blake distant. Yang's eyes widened as it dawned on her. Ruby's body melted away, and she felt Blake's arms slide around her waist. Yang woke up.

"Morning." Blake whispered in her ear, kissing her cheek gently.

Yang spun around grabbing Blake as tightly as possible, burying her face into her shoulder. Blake jumped a little, startled.

"Are you ok, Yang?" she asked concerned.

"Nightmares." Yang said curtly, muffled by her hair.

Blake's tone softened "The same one? With Ruby?" she asked, bringing her arms fully around Yang's back rubbing between her shoulder blades reassuringly.

Yang started to tear up again. "I know I shouldn't be worried, I know she has her own team now. But what if she does get hurt. What if she does…" Yang trailed off, not being able to finish the thought.

"She won't." Blake said firmly, "But no matter what, I will be here for you. I promise."

Yang looked up at Blake and kissed her gently. Blake kissed her back, but quickly pulled back.

"We can't stay in bed all day, we have stuff to do." Blake reminded her.

Yang groaned "Uhg. I know." She rolled out of bed and stumbled tiredly over to the dresser, and began putting on clothes for the day. Halfway through sliding her shirt on, Blake hugged her from behind.

"Why don't you take the day off? You seem like you could use some peace and quiet." Blake suggested.

"Are you sure, we have practice today in Forever Fall?" Yang asked.

"I'll do some tracking with them today. You don't need to be there for that." Blake assure her.

Yang sighed and slid her shirt back off, turning around to face Blake. "You're the best." She said, hugging her. She crawled back into bed and turned to watching Blake get ready. After finishing, Blake picked Gambol's Shroud off of the Nightstand, winked at Yang, turned, and walked out the door without a word.

So much had changed since last year. The war between Vale and another kingdom had forced their training to be accelerated drastically. Teams had been broken in half, and new recruits used to fill the empty spots. Yang was very happy to have been paired with Blake. While she missed her sister greatly, without the current arrangement her and Blake never would have become this close. Constant nightmares had led to Yang spending most of her nights sleeping in Blake's room on the floor until Blake caught her, and invited her into her bed. After that is was only a matter of time before their forced closeness turned into a relationship.

Yang shivered, pulling the blankets up closer to her. Winter was here and she was especially happy to have someone to share a bed with. She started to drift off again to memories of Blake keeping her warm when a knock at the door startled her awake.

"Uh oh." She said, remembering that Ruby said she was going to come by. Yang hadn't told Ruby (or anyone really) about her and Blake. She glanced over at the bed that was supposed to be hers in the corner, it was still freshly made from a week ago when she had changed the sheets to keep up appearances. Yang flew out of bed and to the dresser, hastily getting clothes on. She ran over to her bed and frantically messed it up before sprinting to the door. Yang stopped with her hand on the doorknob and collected herself. After a moment she swung the door open.


	2. Chapter 2

"Helllllloooo" Yang said joyfully.

Ruby jumped on to her. "Yang!" she yelled happily.

The Yang/Ruby pile fell to the floor in a heap.

"Very Graceful, Ruby" Weiss said in her normal manner from the doorway.

"Weiss! I… Uhm… I didn't know you were coming by too!" Yang said sheepishly, toying with her hair. "Please, come in."

Ruby untangled herself from Yang and helped them both from the floor.

"Sorry, she was feeling left out" Ruby whispered.

Weiss walked around before settling herself into a chair. "I see you still share your sister's lack of cleanliness." She said waving her hand toward a pile of schoolbooks and empty coffee mugs on the desk. Yang grumbled passively, not willing to acknowledge the sideways insult. Ruby was already tearing through Blake's bookshelf, hoping to find something she hadn't already taken and read. Yang sat down on her fake bed.

"So how are things going with your team?" Yang asked.

"Our fearless leader has been teaching some very… Interesting lessons lately" Weiss responded.

Yang looked to Ruby expecting a response but saw that she had her nose stuck in a book. She sighed, knowing that she had lost her sister for the foreseeable future. Lost. Yang's mind was filled with a rush of false memories. These nightmares had been plaguing her for weeks now, almost every night. She had gone to the doctor hoping that they could fix whatever was wrong. She had been given a clean bill of health and sent on her way after only about half an hour. As her head cleared she realized that Weiss was talking.

"And I don't think that baking cookies is a necessary skill for a huntsman or huntress." Weiss looked down at Yang "Are you even listening to me?"

"What? Uhm. Yeah, of course Weiss. I agree with you completely." Yang said, flustered.

"Finally! Someone who understands what I am saying!" Weiss lamented, throwing her hands up in the air.

Ruby was still sitting on the floor, her nose stuck in a book. Yang doubted she had heard a word of Weiss's ranting, but then again neither had she. These dreams were becoming more frequent and had progressively felt more real. She hadn't had a restful night in weeks it felt like, and it was starting to affect her. She wasn't as quick or responsive and felt sluggish most days. Blake had noticed when they were sparring and she decided to open up to her about what had she had been dreaming about. Blake was very understanding and had taken time to understand what she had been feeling.

Yang sighed happily. Blake was perfect for her, she was full of everything that Yang lacked, patience, tact, and also kitty ears. When she first realized that Blake was a Faunus she had been a little conflicted. It had nothing to do with being afraid of her, but Yang had never really knew a Faunus. None went to Signal Academy, and none lived near her. She had a massive lack of experience with how to deal with them. Fighting with her against the Nevermore had made her realize that the only decision was to treat her like she would treat any human. When she and Blake had grown close she quickly had realized how adorable her kitty ears were. They were soft and put Blake in certain mood when she touched them.

Yang blushed and drew herself out of her thoughts to prevent herself from delving too far into the memory of their first night as a couple. Weiss had moved and was now sitting on Yang's bed talking to Ruby about the skirmish they had with Cardin's team tomorrow, Ruby was blissfully ignoring her, still reading. By the look of it she was almost done with the book, even though she had only been reading for about half an hour.

"Would you like to go get some lunch?" Yang asked abruptly, wanting to get some fresh air.

Ruby looked up from her book. "Food?" she asked

"Of course that gets your attention you dolt." Weiss said, getting up and walking toward the door, exasperated.

Lunch was uneventful, Ruby told Yang about the training regimen she had instituted for her team, Weiss, of course, complained about said regimen. Yang felt bad for Weiss in some ways. Ruby's team had been filled out with two new recruits, Irulan Greene and Evelyn Gosse. Yang hadn't really spent much time talking to them, but Evelyn was a small, quiet girl who wouldn't stand out in a crowd, while Irulan was a polar opposite, very loud and wore big black leather boots and a leather jacket. Ruby had become fast friends with both of them, which had left Weiss ostracized a little bit. Yang knew that Ruby and Weiss were friends, but Weiss' abrasiveness was taxing everyone.

After lunch, Weiss and Ruby left to practice for their upcoming skirmish. Yang, having nothing to do decided to go for a walk, having not spent much time outside in the past couple days. Wandering the campus of Beacon she quickly found herself in the garden as usual. There were red trees harvested from Forever Fall, and an assortment of other flora from across Vale. She flopped herself down onto a wrought iron bench and put her head in her hands, suddenly exhausted. Her dreams had been maddening, seeming to counter every move she made to try and understand them. Every time she was just about to snap they would stop and leave her be for a day or two. But after she collected herself they would come right back.

Yang sighed and leaned over, resting her head on the arm of the bench trying to think of anything other than her dreams. She was just so tired of all of it. She wanted to be back in bed, with Blake. She was always so good at keeping her sane, she knew just what to do and just what to say. Blake had a lot more experience with these sort of things than Yang had. The Faunus were much more accepting of same-sex relationships then the people of Vale were, so Yang had been forced to be very quiet about her preferences, even going so far as to lie outright about it while in the company of most.

Blake on the other hand had a handful of relationships before Yang, but never with a non-Faunus, leaving both of them in uncharted territory. Yang vividly remembered the first time Blake kissed her, almost like a photograph of the moment had been taken and forever locked away in her head.

**6 months prior

Yang woke up from a nightmare again, sitting alone in the dark wasn't helping her already fragile mental state and so she decided to go and sleep on the floor in Blake's room as she had done before. However when Yang slid the door open, Blake was still awake and reading by candle light.

"Yes?" Blake ask, curiously. her ears perked up a bit

"Uhm, nothing!" Yang said smiling dumbly "just wanted to say goodnight!"

"At 3 in the morning?" Blake asked, already not believing her.

Yang paused. "I had a nightmare, and I don't want to be alone." she admitted, looking at the floor

Blake smiled slightly, "Hop in."

"Whaaa?" Yang said confused.

Blake scooted over and patted next to her, "You can sleep in my bed tonight, if you want."

Yang jumped at the opportunity laying down next to her, back facing Blake trying to drown her urges in rational thought. Being as exhausted as she was, Yang quickly fell asleep. The nightmare started again almost immediately. It went as it always did, her sister dying due to some combination of Yang's incompetence, or lack of action, or some other demoralizing reason. But this time, as she watched her sister bleeding out on the floor of an abandoned warehouse, she was shaken awake by Blake, who looked panicked.

"You were screaming in your sleep." Blake said. Yang lost her composure and started sobbing. Weeks of pent up emotion came pouring out as she finally couldn't take it alone any longer. Blake hugged her and held her while she cried, listened to her talk about her dreams, she was perfect. About 2 hours later once Yang had cried herself out Blake put one finger to Yang's lips as she tried to apologize for her emotions, then she took Yang's head in her hands and kissed her softly.

Yang immediately forgot about the dreams and about everything else. Her heart rate sped up to ludicrous speeds and time seemed to stop. Yang felt Blake's arms slide around her waist and pull her closer. Yang's mind was racing and she couldn't coherently gather her thoughts so she just let it happen and enjoyed it.

While it probably only lasted a few seconds Yang felt as though eons had passed when Blake finally let her go.

"Sorry," Blake said, turning away, "That was inappropriate of me."

Yang was trying desperately to arrange her thoughts into some semblance of order. After a second she said, "N-No it's fine. Really. I didn't mind."

Blake smiled slightly "Goodnight, Yang." She turned around, leaving her back to Yang. Yang rolled her head onto a pillow, and once again tried to fall asleep, dazed and unsure about what had just happened.

The next morning, they awoke together getting ready for classes. Blake didn't say a thing, but it was the only thing Yang could think about the entire day. Classes seemed to take forever, but as soon as they were over it felt like they had never happened. Yang could not wait for the call for lights out. Maybe she would get to stay with Blake again, maybe she would kiss her again. Yang's cheeks flushed just thinking about it.

As soon as the final bell rang dismissing classes for the day Yang ran back to her room. Blake's team had been assigned two rooms, side by side. Yang and Blake shared one, and their two new recruits shared the other. The first recruit, Violet Arren, was an enigma to Yang, she was short and extremely thin, but runic tattoos all over her body save her face. When she fought these runes glowed a dark purple and floated off of her skin to be used as both defensive and offensive weapons.

The second, Erik Redd was a massive hulking brute whose personality was entirely unexpected. He worked as a gardener before he attended beacon and loved tending to the flower-box he had put on the window sill. He was a soft gentle soul, though He fought like a bear. His massive ax swirled through the air like a baton in his hands.

Yang arrived in her room, unlocking the door and slipping inside. It looked like no-one was back yet, but then she realized Blake's door was slightly ajar, She drifted to the door, trying not to get her hopes up. She peered inside, and seeing Blake in her bed she knocked shyly. Blake looked up smiling. She scooted over, and pat the bed next to her.

"Hop in."


End file.
